by G. Bailey
“It is good to be home,” Silas replies, walking up to the horses. He pats the side of one of them. “How is my horse?”
“Gwendial is fine,” Alpha Soren tells him. “We will ride out together tomorrow.”
Silas nods at him, a softness in his eyes for Alpha Soren. I remember being told Alpha Reine challenged his biological father for Silas, won, and brought him up. I get the impression, or feeling, something similar happened with Valentine. I want to ask about Valentine’s history, but I will wait until he comes to me. No one should be pushed into revealing their past.
“Should we not wait for Ragnar and Henderson to come back down with the children?” I question.
“They will catch up,” Valentine tells me.
“There was an outbreak of a nasty sickness five years ago that took a lot of our young,” Alpha Reine tells us, a note of sadness in her words. “Wolf children are very welcome to many parents here, and they will be honoured and celebrated. My people are working hard to find them homes, and you need not worry.”
“I will try not to,” I reply, looking at Alpha Reine. “And I’m so sorry for your losses.”
“We endure the fall,” she tells me, each word filled with power, “and rise in the ashes.”
She turns away from us, and I look up at the gigantic oak carriage that towers up into the sky, the oak shaped into leaves and petals that join together to hold a red stained glass sphere. The door of the carriage has the Fall Mountain Pack symbol carved in the middle, and it opens outward before a man jumps out. Wearing all black, with a red cloak falling from his shoulders and a red symbol on his chest, he bows his head of black hair. Two swords are strapped to his back, and four daggers are strapped to his arms.
“Any royal guard wears this uniform,” Valentine tells me, loud enough for Phim, Adira and Trey to hear. “There is a ranking for guards, starting with grunts, and the top level is one of the Selected Royal Guards. To become one takes intense training.”
The guard keeps his head bowed as he pulls down a little tiny row of steps that lead into the carriage before stepping to the side.
Alpha Reine walks on first. “Thank you, Krause. Take us back to the castle.”
“Yes, alpha,” Krause responds. Alpha Soren climbs on next, and Silas gestures for me to follow. He holds onto my hand as he guides me up the steps, and I sit on the empty side. The walls are dark, with an electric light above us on the ceiling, and the seats are made of dark red fabric. There is space for at least ten people to sit in here, maybe fewer if they are the size of my alphas.
Silas comes and sits right next to me, opposite Alpha Soren and Reine. Valentine gets on next and sits beside Silas, followed by Adira and Phim and finally Trey. Trey takes the seat next to Alpha Reine and Soren, immediately chatting away as the door closes and the carriage takes off.
I peel the red curtains back to look out the window, watching the houses go past until we come to a clearing of grass, and beyond is one of the two rivers that flow through the city. We cross over a large white stone bridge, and I look down to see three swans in the river, gracefully swimming along.
I look back to see Silas and Valentine deep in conversation, both of them tenser than before.
“What’s wrong?” I ask.
The carriage goes quiet, everyone listening in as Silas answers me. “Our bond with the pack has gone silent.”
“What does that mean?” Phim questions. “I can feel the bond, but I can’t tap into it.”
“It’s like it’s gone silent, disappeared,” Trey agrees.
“It’s the magic of the city,” Soren claims, interrupting. “It can do that, on occasion. I heard of issues with the pack bond when my father’s rite was started. The land doesn’t know who the alphas are going to be, and it makes the rules.”
“The land is alive with god magic,” Alpha Reine agrees. “We should all be cautious of its strength while The Rite of Wolves is commencing.”
“There’s only one pack after all. Making another one and then coming here must have messed with the magic,” Silas agrees.
“I hope it was worth leaving your people for so long,” Alpha Soren comments, his eyes looking my way. They left to find me, and it has no doubt cost them something they aren’t saying. The city seems at peace, the people safe, and that can’t be said for anyone outside these walls.
I get the impression he is talking about me, about whether I’m worth the years they spent looking for me.
Silas and Valentine turn my way. Their combined gaze makes my heart beat fast. “Some people are worth all the stars in the sky, all the packs in the world, and every beat of our hearts.”
I suck in a breath, holding back the emotions pouring throughout my body. These alphas so effortlessly take my heart and soul with a couple of words. With a look.
I love them passionately and whole-heartedly, and whatever the future is going to throw at us, we can handle it.
The silence becomes uncomfortable after a while, and I choose to look out of the window, watching the city pass by, enjoying the normality of this place. Wolves fill the streets, both shifted and not, pausing to enjoy the leaves falling from the trees or a quiet talk with a friend. Some are eating on benches, others are running or doing stretches. The shifted wolves are walking between them or lying on the grass in the shade, young wolves playing at their feet. The young wolves are tiny, and they must shift for the first time so young here. I can’t wait to run through this city in my wolf form. The scents and sights will be unforgettable.
The wolves here wear a mixture of human-like clothing—dresses and jeans, leggings and T-shirts—surprising me. In the Fenrir Court, the angels dress like humans in the eighteen hundreds, and we were the odd ones out. We drive around a corner, and I look up at a large, broken pillar that towers into the sky. The pillar is made of white stone, beautifully carved, and I imagine it was one of the original parts of the mountain that fell.
“Is that part of the original mountain?” I question, pointing at it.
“Yes, and there are parts like that all over the city. The city, by the way, is called the Ruina City, and it is divided into eight plazas. Each plaza has a name, and it is defined by the pillars which mark the borders of areas. We just left the Infernum Plaza, and we are now in the Calah Plaza,” Alpha Reine explains to me.
“I look forward to learning more about Ruina City,” I answer.
Alpha Reine nods, looking out. “I felt your presence, all six of you, when you stepped in here. The land shook with power, unlike anything I’ve seen. You were all born to walk this city, to be in this pack.”
“I know I was,” Adira comments with a proud smile.
Alpha Reine watches her for a moment, and I can’t read her expression before she turns back to looking out the window. “This land is steeped with magic from Hades and from other gods who walked on this place right before our time, and after a while, the land speaks to you. It helps you.”
“Do you think the land is happy to have us here?” Silas questions. I’m a little surprised he doesn’t call her his mother, but I don’t comment on it.
She frowns, turning to Alpha Soren. “Yes and no. The rite...well, it has made the land alive once more with thick, dangerous and wild magic. We should all be very careful until you take our place as alphas.”
“Our connection to Hades has grown,” Silas warns.
Something like fear flashes in Alpha Reine’s eyes before she rests back. “I look forward to our long conversations on what has happened this last year that I haven’t heard from you.”
“How did you contact each other before?” Trey asks.
“Fox and his oddly silent brothers regularly brought people here from my sons, along with letters. We have received over two hundred wolves, all young or female,” Alpha Soren answers him. I wonder if they have a problem with the birth rate of female wolves compared to males here.
Trey starts asking a million more questions, mostly about food, and I softly smile at Si
las, who smirks at me as I turn away to look out of the window, watching the city once again as we pass by it. The small houses slowly turn into bigger ones with large grasslands between them. We pass another pillar, marking a new district that is full of newer townhouses, rows of them with what I think are shops on the lower levels. Several of the townhouses have glass windows with dresses on display, or jewellery and many other things we pass by too quickly for me to really see. The streets are filled with so many people, some pausing to look at the carriage and whisper to their friends. I catch several eyes in the crowds, and I smile at them, wishing I was out of the carriage so I could talk to them, find out the secrets of my new home.
After several miles of townhouses, we come up to large gates shaped like wolves running together, made out of gold metal. The gates meet in the middle with a large upside-down mountain symbol in silver, and in front of that are several men in guard uniform, their red cloaks making them stand out. In a row, they bow their heads before pulling the gates open, the creaking noise filling the silence.
“Welcome to the Hades Plaza and home to Darkland Castle. Our home is yours for now,” Alpha Soren exclaims. I don’t miss the for now part of his invite. I push the worry in my throat down as we ride past the gates, and I get a good look at the Hades Plaza.
For miles, it’s just woodland and fields filled with flowers of every colour, towering oak trees and bushes filled with berries. I scent everything, even from within the carriage, the way this part of the land is truly alive. It’s breathtaking to take in as we head down the winding stone-laid path until we eventually go past a few rows of small grey stone townhouses with walled gardens around them and three long stables at the end, filled with horses. The carriage veers to the left, and I see where we are heading: a large clock tower standing tall in the middle of a short-walled courtyard, with ivy and red roses climbing over the stone and up the tower. The clock isn’t moving, and it doesn’t have any hands, just a wolf’s face in silver on white within the circle of the clock, and markings where the hours are. Above the clock face is a red bell hanging high.
Where is the Darkland Castle? I can’t see any castle or building other than the clock tower, but I doubt that is what Alpha Reine means.
When we pull into a courtyard, I do notice on either side of the clock tower, there is a crater with water falling in from either side, the ends of the river. The sounds of the waterfalls hit my ears when the carriage door is pulled open.
I climb out of the carriage after Alpha Reine and walk away from them all, to the clock tower and the small brick wall marking the edge. The gap is gigantic, spreading for a few miles, and the waterfalls are huge on either side. I look down and see the castle built into the ground, into the gap, and it has been designed in the shape of a wolf with three heads.
“Did you know Hades and Persephone had a wolf who couldn’t shift?” Valentine comments from my side. Everyone else is looking down at the castle with me, but Silas and Valentine are watching me closely. Like they want to take in my every reaction.
I shake my head, and he continues, “The wolf couldn’t shift because he was cursed for loving someone he shouldn’t, and the curse made him morph into a wolf with three heads. The world cast him away. No one would help or talk with him due to his ugliness, until Persephone and Hades met him. They took him in, told him the world might have seen him as one thing, but that did not mean he was what they said. They named him Cerberus, but no one ever knew his real name. He walked these lands, protecting Hades and Persephone from any danger in repayment for the kindness.”
I look at the castle, the one they must have designed to look like Cerberus. Yes, he isn’t the prettiest wolf to look at, but he is still spectacular.
“Sometimes, when you look that way, I want nothing more than to know what’s in your mind. What you are thinking and feeling,” Valentine whispers to me, searching my eyes as he leans in, the closeness of him making my breath hitch. “You’re a riddle to me, Mai. A riddle.”
“I actually thought you were the riddle, Val,” I whisper back, searching his eyes, feeling that familiar and wanted tug between us.
Adira laughs at something, snapping me back and reminding me we aren’t alone.
“What’s down there?” I ask, pointing at the darkness. “Is it a river or lake?”
“No one quite knows,” Valentine replies. “The castle doesn’t go that far down. It just stops at some point, and no one is brave enough to climb or jump.”
“Maybe we should send the angel asshole to see, and hope he doesn’t come back?” Silas suggests in a serious tone, rubbing his chin like he is actually thinking of sending Callahan down there. He’s joking. He must be. At least I think he is joking.
“I want to have a private word with my boys,” Alpha Reine announces. “I need to know everything that has happened and how exactly you found both Mai and Adira. The rest of you, it is time to have a small look at the castle on the way to your rooms, and then we will see each other at a celebration meal and afterparty.”
She pauses and clicks her fingers. Alpha Soren is already walking away, taking Trey with him. “Trey is being shown to the children’s section of the castle, where he will be protected at all times. We take our children’s safety very seriously here,” Alpha Reine announces. “And the poor boy needs a bath and a haircut.”
“I’m sure he will love the pampering,” I say.
“I have no doubt. But any private talk you want, including knowledge, can be said in front of our beta and Mai,” Silas replies.
“And me,” Adira grumbles.
“Boy, you might be older than you were when you left, but I am alpha female, and when I demand to speak with you alone, I will not be questioned,” Alpha Reine growls out. “I have commanded you to tell me everything, and you will. There will be no discussion on who is present. Especially not wolves I don’t know or trust.”
Both Silas and Valentine look ready to fight when I step forward, placing my hands on both their arms.
“I’ll be fine on my own, and I could do with resting,” I tell them both. “It’s safe here. It’s our home.”
Even if I’m not sure it feels like home right at this moment. I feel unwanted, especially by Alpha Reine, but like she said, she doesn’t know who I am or anything about my story. In her mind, I could have been hiding all this time, knowing who I am, and choosing not to find our people. She knows who I was as a child, nothing more than that.
“Fine,” Silas tensely replies, and Valentine nods, placing his hand over mine on his arm before I let go.
Alpha Reine doesn’t look impressed, and I suspect they are in for an earful only a mother could give when we aren’t here.
“I will protect Mai in your absence.” Phim steps up to my side. “As your beta, it is my honour to do so.”
Alpha Reine stares at Phim for a long time, her eyes widening slightly.
“I know who you are. Why did you not say?” she questions.
“Some things should be kept in the past,” Phim tightly replies.
“I did not get to meet you more than once as a young one. You screamed and cried all of the time, from the moment you were born. Like you wanted the world to know how angry you were,” Alpha Reine tells Phim with a sad smile. “Seraphim, I knew I remembered the name. At least your terrible father gave you the name when he stole you away.”
“Stole?”
“Yes, stole.” Alpha Reine nods. “Why do you think he took you to Ravensword? It was the only place we couldn’t get you back.”
“I-I thought I was given away,” Phim whispers. “How old was I when I was taken?” she asks.
Stolen... She was stolen away. Our mum never wanted to give her away.
“You were only a few days old. The story is long and complicated...but I know my dear friend wished she could have brought you up alongside Mairin, and prayed for you every single day,” Alpha Reine says, turning to me. “I’m sure Mai has many stories about—”
“We ha
ve much to discuss,” Valentine interrupts, and I give him a nod of thanks as I gently place my hand on Phim’s back. She straightens up, wiping away some tears.
Two blonde women in dark red silk dresses with thin silver cloaks falling from clips off their shoulders walk over to us, their heads bowed. The one on the left is slightly taller and has a chunk of her ear missing, visible with her hair tied up in a bun. The other woman’s hair is down, falling to her waist, and she looks up at Silas and Valentine, her cheeks turning red.
I can’t blame her. They are alluring and tempting to even the purest soul.
But a spark of jealousy makes me gulp.
“We shall see you shortly,” Alpha Reine states and turns away. Silas nods to me before leaving, Valentine looking into my eyes before turning and following after him.
“Please, follow me. Feel free to ask any questions, and I will answer them as best I can,” the taller one says, her head still bowed. “It is an honour to be in your presence.”
“It’s nice to meet you both,” I reply as they start walking away, across the courtyard. Hidden within the courtyard walls is a door, and the shorter one holds it open for us to follow the other in. The door leads to a winding staircase, and I count two hundred steps before we hit the bottom, which is lit up with modern electrical lights lining the ceiling. I barely get a chance to look at the large framed paintings on the wall before we turn to the left, moving aside to let four guards walk past.
The path leads to another, much larger staircase, and on every third step, there is a gold statue of a goddess or god holding various weapons. I pause at the one on the ninth step, recognizing her immediately, even in stone. She has a veil over the top part of her face, her long hair falling around her and the flowing dress she wears. In her hands is a bowl of pomegranates and one viper curled around them all. My eyes flicker to my arm hidden under my shirt.
Persephone.
“Is this Persephone?” Phim asks me.
“Yes,” I answer, looking away. The women and Adira have gone ahead, and we walk quickly down the steps to catch up, finding Adira looking up at one of the statues. The goddess is completely naked, her body twisting to the side, and her hands are bound with rope. Her long hair is braided, and a crown rests on top of her head.